mained there a few days before sailing for Palos, from whence he had departed.. During that short residence, afraid, it should seem, lest some accident of the sea might prevent him from reaching the seat of the Spanish government, as indeed he had suffered severely from two recent storms, which had placed in the utmost hazard his return to Europe, he addressed to one Don Raphael Sanzio, of the King's Council, a concise but very interesting narrative of his prodigious discoveries. Of the original Spanish letter,. we have not been able to learn any thing; nor do we believe that it ever was published; for Munoz, who mentions his having seen it, says, that it was in the Manuscript History. of Bernaldez, who had preserved it almost entire.' That this precious document should never have been printed, will excite the less surprise, when we recollect that there is great reason to doubt whether the original work of Don Ferdinand itself was ever published. This at least is certain, that for ages it has only been known through the Italian translation; that no older edition of any kind is extant; and that no author ever has mentioned the original Spanish.

Of the letter of Columbus, then, we have only a Latin translation, which is extremely rare, as it should seem, from the historians having made hardly any mention of it. Even Dr. Robertson, the most diligent of mankind, appears to have been ignorant of its existence. He makes not the

slightest allusion to it; nor does Don Ferdinand, in his work already so often referred to. There is a copy of this letter in the Brera library at Milan, printed in 1493, and the only one extant of that most ancient edition. We have seen three other copies in the French King's library at Paris, and compared them with this. The one most nearly resembling it, forms part of a work published in 1494, and entitled, Caroli Verardi in laudem Serenissimi Fernandi Hisp. Reg. &c. &c. Obsidio, Victoria et triumphus et de insulis in Mari Indico nuper repertis.'* The latter part of the title is found to re

* Our readers will be edified with the following specimen of the strain in which true Castilians venerate their legitimate sovereign. After exulting in his great attributes, the panegyrist comes to the fruitful topic of his vast power, and says, 'De auctoritate in rege presertim supervacaverim est dicere; quem omnes socii et populares colunt ut Deum; nostri metuunt ut pestem.' To the worship of his neighbours, the royal descendant of Ferdinand may have succeeded, for any thing we know; to the peculiar species of veneration rendered to that prince by his faithful subjects, e believe he has pretty fully established his claims-and so loyal a people are not likely to withhold it.

fer wholly to Columbus' letter. It is printed again in a collection of six pieces by Henricus Petrus at Basil, in the year 1533, who says he took them all 'ex antiquo et scripto exemplari.' And it is given, with less correctness, in the collection called Hispania Illustrata, tom. II. p. 1282, published in 1603 at Frankfort. The only two other copies known to exist, are the one in the Magliabechi Library at Florence, described by Fossius, and another at Rome, in the Casanata Library. The English translation, which we shall subjoin, of this piece, is from the Milanese copy, the most ancient and correct, together with the MS. note upon it. We have a few particulars further to premise.

It is clear, that the Admiral confines himself to a very short account of his grand discovery; for he makes no mention of some of the incidents, the most touching him personally, in the course of his voyage. Thus he says nothing of the discontents and mutiny of his crew; the alarm excited by the variation of the compass; the loss of his vessel by shipwreck in the West Indies; the desertion of Pinson; the separation of the Pinto, which, it must be observed, had not rejoined him when the letter was written, for she arrived after him at Palos. Nor does he allude to the two violent storms on the voyage homewards, one of which had so nearly prevented his return. With respect to the more public transactions, he scarcely omits any of importance. From these omissions, no discredit is thrown upon the document, which is incontestably genuine. But a very extraordinary circumstance might seem at first to occasion some doubts. Columbus says, that he arrived in the Indian Sea the thirty-third day after his departure. Now, by the concurrent testimony of all historians, from Don Ferdinand to Dr. Robertson, he sailed from Palos the third of August, 1492, and discovered the island of Guanahani or St. Salvador, on the night of the eleventh of October, or rather at two in the morning of the twelfth. Nor is it possible that he could have made the passage in the shorter period, under the difficulties of a first voyage, and including his stopping at the Canaries. We take it that this difficulty is easily removed, by attending to the words of the translation. Tricesimo tertio die postquam a Gadibus discessi.' He never sailed from Cadiz-but from Palos; and Gadibus' must be an error of the translator or his printer for Gomera, the Canary Island whence he took his departure; and where, as Robertson observes, the voyage of discovery may be said properly to begin. Now, according to Don Ferdinand, he left Gomera on the sixth of Septem

ber; and thirty-three days from that brings him to the ninth of October, when he certainly was in the Indian Sea, and so confident of making land, that he only desired his mutinous crew to bridle their impatience for three days longer, and he assured them of landing within that time, as in fact they did. If, however, the time refers to his discovering land, and not to his arrival in the Indian Seas, then we submit that the difference of three days is easily accounted for, upon the supposition of the number having been originally written in figures thus, XXXVI; and the translator or printer having copied III. instead of VI. by a natural blunder.

Don Ferdinand says, that he entered the Tagus on the fourth of March, 1493-came before Lisbon on the fifthwas sent for by the King the seventh-departed for Seville on Wednesday, the thirteenth--and arrived at Palos on Friday, the fifteenth. Dr. Robertson states his departure on the ninth, which was the day he returned from his visit to the court. Now the letter is dated the fourteenth. But this seems a discrepancy of no moment. In all probability, the date was written XIII. in the original Spanish; and the translator, or the copy from which he wrote, made it XIV. Translation of COLUMBUS's Letter from the Latin of the Milanese Edition,

CONCERNING THE DISCOVERED ISLANDS.

A Letter of Christopher Columbus (to whom our age is much indebted) concerning the Islands lately discovered in the Indian Sea-in search of which he had been sent eight months before, under the auspices, and at the expense of the most invincible Ferdinand, King af the Spains-addressed to the Magnifico Don Raphael Sanxio, Treasurer of the same most Serene King: Which Letter, the Noble and learned Alexander de Cosco has translated from the Original Spanish into Latin—on the third of the Kalends of May 1493-in the first year of the Pontificate of Alexander Sixth.

HAVING now accomplished the undertaking upon which I set out, I know that it will be agreeable to you to be informed of all that I have done and discovered in my voyage. On the thirtythird day after I had left Cadiz, I reached the Indian Ocean, where I found a great many islands, peopled by innumerable inhabitants, of all which I took possession, without resistance, in the name of our most illustrious King, with public proclamation and hoisting our colours. To the first of these islands, I gave the name of the Divine Saviour, trusting to whose protection I had reached it and all the rest. Its Indian name, however, is Guanahanyx. In like manner, I gave new names to the whole. One was named from Holy Mary of the Conception-another Fernan

dina-another Isabella-another Joanna-and in like manner of the rest. When we landed upon that island, which, I have just said, was named Joanna, I proceeded along its shore, somewhat towards the west, and found it of so great an extent, without any apparent termination, that I conceived it not to be an island, but part of the Continent-a province of Cathay. However, you see neither cities nor towns situated on its shores-only a few villages and rural farms. I could not enter into conversation with its inhabitants; and, accordingly, as soon as they saw us, they took to flight. I advanced forward, thinking that I should find some town, or country houses; but, at length, perceiving that nothing new was likely to appear, however far we might go-and that our progress was carrying us directly north,which I was particularly desirous to avoid, as winter was now set in, and the winds were besides favourable for our voyage southwards, the direction which I wished, I determined to make no further search, but returned to a harbour, whose situation I had marked. I notwithstanding sent from hence two of our men into the country, to inquire, whether there were any king or cities in the province. They pursued their course for three days, and met with innumerable people and inhabitants—a paltry race, however, and without any government;-so they returned. I had, in the mean time, been informed by some Indians, whom I found there, that the country was in fact an island. I accordingly proceeded towards the east, always keeping along the shores, for three hundred and twenty-two miles, where the island is terminated. From hence I saw another island to the east, distant from this of Joanna 54 miles, to which I immediately gave the name of Hispana, and made for it. As I had before done at Joanna, I coursed along it to the east, by the north, for 564 miles. Joanna, and the rest of these islands are astonishingly fertile. This one is surrounded by the safest and most admirable harbours which I ever saw: There are likewise in it many very lofty mountains. All these islands are very beautifully shaped, in a great diversity of forms. They abound in the finest variety of trees, so lofty that they seem to reach the stars-never, I believe, without foliage; for, when I saw them, they were as beautiful and green as our trees in Spain are in the month of May-some in flower-others bearing fruitothers in a different state, but each most suited to its quality: The nightingale, and innumerable other birds of all kinds, sung amidst their shades; and yet it was the month of November when I passed under them. In the above mentioned island of Joanna, there are moreover seven or eight kinds of palm-trees; which, for stature and beauty, (as indeed may be said of all their other trees, herbs, and fruits), far surpass ours. There are pines, too, of an admirable beauty-fields and meadows of the utmost extent-birds of many different species-honey of various flavours-metals of all

kinds, except iron. In that one which, as I have already said, I called Hispana, the mountains are the highest-the country and woods are of great extent-the meadows very fruitful, and particularly well adapted for corn, pasture, or the situation of houses. The convenience of the harbours in this island, and the abundance and salubrity of the rivers, must almost exceed the belief of those who have not seen them. Its trees, pastures and fruits, are very different from those in Joanna. It abounds, besides, in various sorts of aromatics,-in gold and metals. Of this island, and of all the others which I have seen or obtained any knowledge of, the inhabitants go naked, both sexes alike, just as they were born: except that some of the women have a leaf, or some sort of cotton covering, which they themselves prepare for that purpose, about their middle. As I have already said, all these people are utterly without iron of any sort;-they are also without arms, of which they know not the use, and indeed would be ill adapted to make use of them; not from any bodily defects, for they are well formed, but because they are remarkably timid and fearful. The only kind of arms they possess are canes parched in the sun, on the roots of which they fix a sort of spear-head of dry wood sharpened into a point: Yet these they do not often dare to usefor it frequently happened that when I had sent two or three of my men, to some of the villages that they might have communication with their inhabitants-a whole body of Indians would come out; but no sooner did they see our men approach, than off they set, parents deserting their children, and children their parents without any scruple. Nor was this owing to any violence on my part, as I was particularly anxious that they should meet with no injury; on the contrary, among whatever people I landed, or whom I could bring to conference, I always imparted to them, in quantities, whatever I happened to have-such as cloths and many other things-nor took any thing from them in return.But they are by nature of a very timid disposition.-Whenever they know themselves to be in safety however, and get over their fears, they are an uncommonly simple and honest people-very liberal in bestowing whatever they possess.-They never refuse a request: nay they themselves invited us to make demands of them. They have in truth a show of the greatest good will to all: they give things of great value for what is of scarce any-and are indeed content with very little or almost nothing in exchange. I however made a point that they should not be imposed upon by the very trifling and worthless articles which were apt to be given them, such as broken bits of earthen ware, or of glasslikewise nails;-although the truth is, if they might but obtain these, they thought themselves possessed of the most beautiful ornaments in the world. A sailor, on one occasion, got for one nail as great a weight of gold as would have made three golden nobles: and in the same way, for other articles of still less value.